Stefania Orfanidou

In April 2009, a powerful earthquake demolished virtually the entire historical area of the city of L’Aquila in central Italy. The city, from one day to the next, was completely abandoned. Due to its profound cultural heritage the decision to engage in its reconstruction was made immediately. Eight years later, the city constitutes one of the largest construction sites in Europe. The labyrinthine complex of the historical center is now a mysterious place: deluged by day with the dust of abandoned buildings and those that are under construction, and at night falling into an extreme and unsettling silence as the darkness swallows the narrow streets. The absence of a human presence together with the traces of past lives scattered amongst the ruins, evokes the sense of a ghost-city, an uncanny place that is simultaneously captivating, challenging you to discover it.